- Overview
- Trip Includes
- Itinerary
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The Loire valley is the ‘Frenchiest’ bit of France. It’s where the language is the purest, the light and landscape the gentlest, the fields and gardens full of France’s finest flowers, fruit and veg – and where France’s greatest river provides the running commentary. The valley also, of course, boasts the finest collection of châteaux anywhere in the world. These are stunners. Chenonceau, for instance – which we will be visiting – rises with monumental grace, its arcaded gallery bestriding the river, its gardens meticulous, its interior a treasure of riches and French polishing: all-in-all, just a couple of unicorns short of fairy tale perfection.
Your Holiday Package Includes:
Return ferry travel Dover/Calais
6 nights dinner (including ⅓ bottle wine per person), bed, and breakfast in main hotel
2 nights bed and breakfast in overnight hotel
5 lunches
Services of experienced tour driver
Services of excellent guide/travel writer in the Loire
Luxury coach travel with onboard toilet & facilities
EXCURSIONS – to be confirmed
Your Holiday Accommodation:
The *** BEST WESTERN HOTEL LA METAIRIE is in the quiet village of Gosnay, a short drive from Calais. All bedrooms are en suite with TV, telephone, hairdryer, minibar, and Wi-Fi. The hotel has a restaurant, bar, and garden terrace. There is no lift, most bedrooms are on the ground or first floor.
The **** NOVOTEL AMBOISE is located on the outskirts of the riverside town of Amboise in an elevated, tranquil setting. From the hotel’s terrace you can enjoy impressive views of Château d’Amboise and the beautiful Loire countryside. All 121 bedrooms are of a good size with modern facilities including air-conditioning, TV, hairdryer and tea/coffee making facilities. There is a lift to all floors. Breakfast and dinner are taken in the restaurant and from the restaurant’s outdoor terrace you can enjoy stunning views of the surrounding countryside. Leisure facilities include an outdoor pool. There is a lift.
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Itineraries
Sunday
Date : June 22, 2025
Depart for Ferry Crossing & Gosnay
Early departure to Dover for the afternoon ferry crossing to Calais. We transfer into Northern France and the village of Gosnay, for overnight bed and breakfast accommodation at the Best Western Hotel La Metairie.Monday
Date : June 23, 2025
Travel to Amboise
We continue our journey through France into the Loire Valley and to our base in the delightful town of Amboise. We check in for 6 nights half board accommodation at the Novotel Hotel. Our tour will be accompanied by the renowned travel writer Anthony Peregrine, who will join us in Amboise for the duration of our stay.Tuesday
Date : June 24, 2025
Bourre
We’ll put on helmets with miners’ lamps to visit the vast network of the underground quarry at Bourré. It was from here that, over centuries, quarrymen dug out the stones which built the Loire châteaux. Now the quarry is home to a fascinating recreation of a subterranean model town, and an exotic mushroom production outfit. Lunch back on the surface before a short drive to the Chenonceau château. Arching over the river, this is the most elegant of all the Loire châteaux. We end the day with a visit to a troglodyte wine cellar for a visit of the cellar and then a tasting of first-class Loire valley wines.
Wednesday
Date : June 25, 2025
Clos Luce
Easy start to the day with a tourist train trip round the historical centre of our Loire-side home base of Amboise. Later, still in Amboise, we visit the Clos Lucé manor house – where Leonardo de Vinci ended his days. The manor house recalls the life and work of the Renaissance’s greatest man, brought from Italy to France by the French king François I – with the Mona Lisa in the saddle bag of his donkey. Both house and gardens evoke not only his art but his extraordinary engineering inventions. Lunch nearby in Amboise before a hop to the wondrous gardens of the château of Villandry. Perhaps the finest of all Loire valley gardens, they astonish with their scale and a French-style formality which seems to have been created with set-squares rather than spades.
Thursday
Date : June 26, 2025
Thoré-la-Rochette
Slightly longer day starts with a drive to Thoré-la-Rochette in the Loir valley. That’s Loir without an ‘e’ – a charming tributary of the mightier Loire (with an ‘e’). There we board a 1950s train for a trip along the Loir (no ‘e’) valley which will take us gently, and over 90 minutes, through some lovely countryside. We’ll end up in Trôo – a surprising troglodyte village punched into a cliff face on three levels. The cave houses used to be home to poorer working people but have, in recent years, become rather fashionable for arty types. We will have time to visit before lunch nearby in the small town of Montoire-dur-le-Loir, the spot where Hitler and French leader Pétain signed their deal on “collaboration” between the two regimes. There follows a second, and final, wine tasting – this time of Loir valley wines - before we end the day with a gentle visit to the lovely gardens of Plessis Sasnières.
Friday
Date : June 27, 2025
Chambord & Domaine of Chaumont-sur-Loire
The greatest of Loire valley château – that’s to say, both the biggest and the most prestigious – is the château of Chambord. We start the day with a visit before a buffet lunch within the château. In the afternoon, we make the short trip to the Domaine of Chaumont-sur-Loire where, each year, the gardens host the summer-long International Festival of Gardens. This, France’s greatest garden festival, brings together garden creators - but also artists, designers, and landscape architects - from across the world. The 2025 theme is “gardens of enchantment”.
Saturday
Date : June 28, 2025
Blois & Sailing trip on River Loire
Out to the royal town of Blois, where we will all board a series of horses and carriages for an old-style visit of what is a particularly beautiful town. Lunch in town before we return to Chaumont-sur-Loire – this time for a river trip in one of the traditional Loire valley boats. Our boatmen will fill us in on the moods of France’s only remaining untamed river, plus the flora and fascinating fauna.
Sunday
Date : June 29, 2025
Depart for Gosnay
We bid farewell to Anthony and re-trace our steps through France, returning to the village of Gosnay, for overnight bed and breakfast accommodation at the Best Western Hotel La Metairie.Monday
Date : June 30, 2025
Return Ferry Crossing & home
We depart after breakfast and travel to Calais for the short ferry crossing to Dover. Arrive home mid-evening.
Supplements
Single supplement – £300.00
CURRENCY: Euro
PASSPORT: Required
TRAVEL INSURANCE: Required
WE REQUIRE FULL NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, PASSPORT NUMBER AND COUNTRY OF ISSUE. PLEASE PROVIDE THESE DETAILS WHEN BOOKING.
Please note that this is a demanding tour with several visits on foot and boat travel and is therefore not suitable for people who have mobility issues.
Deposit
£80.00 per person
Coach Seating Plan
